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Barry B. Longyear - The Purloined Labradoodle
Barry B. Longyear - The Purloined Labradoodle
by BARRY B. LONGYEAR
****
Shortly after he moved into his new feathers, I discussed it with Shad.
As always he had little interest in anything not involving movies, acting, his
feline friend Nadine, or solving the current case. When I pointed out to him
that the original Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Aurhur Conan Doyle were
narrated by Dr. Watson, hence rightfully Shad should author our adventures
so made up, he looked up from his case file and said, “You know, Jaggs,
despite my many quills, I’ve never been much of one for writing.”
We were on three matters together with Shad in his Watson meat suit.
The first of these inquiries I have titled “The Purloined Labradoodle.” This
inquiry initially had nothing to do with Watson or a Labradoodle. It initiated
actually in relation to improperly imprinted puppies, an imprisoned parakeet,
and a parrot profoundly perturbed.
“Limp stone,” muttered the parrot darkly.
I finished stocking the shelves in back of the small shop counter with
boxes of birdseed, tins of dog food, and little packets of catnip. The
counter and display case were festooned with colorful leashes of assorted
sizes; plastic bones; rubber mice; squeaky toys; scratching posts; king-,
queen-, and knave-sized pet beds and such. The walls were hung with
posters concerning the various hideous diseases cats and dogs could
contract, complete with expensive preventative treatments that could be
purchased right here, should the shipments ever arrive. Shad and I, you
see, were undercover operating a pet shop in The Strand, Village of
Lympstone, east bank of the River Exe south of Exeter, Devon. I was the
pet shop owner and DS Shad had traded his cherished Nigel Bruce meat
suit in on what budget-strapped ABCD had left over in the way of
undercover pet bios: a rather timeworn parrot.
****
“Limp stone,” Shad muttered again from his perch at the end of the
counter. He was getting quite tiresome. I turned from the window.
“I don’t recall that American insurance company you did the telly
adverts for being such great spellers. Why wasn’t your duck quacking
‘Aflass, Aflass?’”
“It sounds like a bordello or lap-dancing salon. Why don’t we just call
it ‘The Cat House’ and be done with it?” The parrot held out his wings,
began bumping and grinding his hips as he danced on the perch, and sang
out in something of a Jamaican accent, ‘Hey dere, sailor boy, you come to
Mama Bimbo’s Cat House for all you pettin’ needs, mon.” The dance
stopped. “Jaggs, if you were a self-respecting crook would you go into a
pet store called The Petting Place?” He sidestepped grumpily from one
end of his perch to the other. “Can’t believe the names around this neck of
the woods: Ex mouth. Nut well. Glebe lands. Cock wood. Under Wear—”
“Key off, Jaggs,” cautioned Shad, nodding toward the window. “Live
one approaching. This may be the kitten pickin’ kingpin herself.”
The bell rang as the door opened revealing a short, stocky woman in
a green anorak and yellow plastic rain scarf, her feet in a pair of bright
yellow wellies. In her right hand she had by the handle a small gray metal
case. She walked up to the counter.
“I means repair. This one’s a robbie,” she said. “All ‘is nuts’s got bolts
in ‘em, if you gets me drift.”
“I see.” I smiled brightly. “If I might take a look at your bird?”
“Nothin’ much works on it.” She lifted the case and dropped it rather
heavily on the counter. “Salt in the air, I expect. Too close to the bleedin’
ocean.”
I opened the case on the counter next to Shad’s perch. Inside the
case was a musty-smelling robotic parakeet. There was something white
and crusty dried between its toes. Shad moved on his perch until he could
look down into the case.
“Ain’t that cute, your parrot there looking at me bird. He’s in love!”
Midway through her rising belly laugh, Shad said to her, “Sod off, you
old cow.”
“I apologize for the parrot, love,” I said. “I’m afraid we rescued the
poor thing from a rather tragic situation.”
With a loud squawk and a belated flap of his unfamiliar wings, Shad
fell off his perch backward onto the floor.
“I didn’t hit the poor thing,” said the woman holding a hand up to her
maker. “I swear it.”
“Please don’t distress yourself unduly, madam. The bird also suffers
from an inner ear problem. It affects his balance.” Excusing myself, I went
around the end of the counter and bent over my partner. He was rolling on
the floor flapping his multicolored plumage, beak open, and laughing.
“Steady,” I said to him over our wireless net, a deserved degree of menace
in my transmission.
He flapped his wings and resumed his place on the perch, occasional
unconquerable snicker spasms shaking his feathers.
I turned toward the woman and smiled brightly yet again. “Now, shall I
take a look at your bird?”
Shad was correct. The creature’s eyes were animated, its gaze
darting about and eventually coming to rest upon me. If it was a simple
rundown robot and not a mech, its eyes should not have been moving. As
they were moving, however, indicating the possibility of a rather serious
crime, I asked as delicately as I could, “How long have you had this mech,
love?”
“Really.”
“‘Course. Think she wanted to get tied up with all that red tape,
wages, taxes, forms, and bother? Not me Aunt Annabelle.” She frowned.
“Besides, if this here bird was self-aware, it’d take better care of itself,
wouldn’t it?” Before I could answer, she added, “More to point, that’s what
the parakeet told me aunt.”
“This parakeet told your aunt it didn’t come under the Artificial
Intelligence Regulations?”
“That’s what me aunt told me years before she passed on. The
parakeet told her, oh—” She frowned and looked up at the beamed ceiling.
“—got to be four years ago.” She lowered her watery gray gaze down until
she was looking me in the face. “See, Annabelle Wallingford passed last
year. Quite well off she was, as I said. Her place was in Wotton Lane by
Watton Brook.”
“I see.”
She poked the parakeet several times in the tummy. “I can do the
feathers up some with needles and me hot glue gun, but I’m no good with
chips, springs, electronics, and such. If it can’t be fixed I’ll just toss it in the
dustbin. Maybe a jumble sale. Some little tyke might have a laugh takin’ it
apart. Might be worth a bob or two.”
I lifted a wing and released it. It dropped to the counter with a thud.
“Let me take it in back and have a look.”
“Is this old parrot here for sale?” she asked, poking Shad in the belly.
“Easy, lady,” he said with the voice of Huntz Hall, “you’ll bruise the
fabric.”
“That’s not the issue, Chuckles,” Shad said to her. “The issue is,
does the bio want you.”
No response.
The parrot flew through the door and landed atop the computer
monitor. “The Story of Alexander Graham Bell, Nineteen thirty-nine, and
that wasn’t the Watson I was hoping for.”
“That’s all right, Shad. Right now you don’t look much like Henry
Fonda, anyway.” I pointed at the screen and Shad looked down between
his feet. A female human CGI was on the screen.
“Lolita Doll.” Rita smiled demurely. “Honest, guv. That’s the name I
was born with, spelling and all. I’m from Plymouth by way of Land’s End.
Thanks for busting me out of that parakeet.”
“You’re not out of the feathers yet, love,” I said evenly. “I’m kind of
curious how you wound up in that chip, how that chip wound up inside that
bird, and especially how that bird wound up inside a wealthy woman’s
estate.”
The image was silent. From his perch atop the screen, Shad said, “Is
it just me or is Rita looking just a bit furtive?”
Shad hopped down to the keyboard, did a little dance on the keys,
and called up Lolita’s previous in a new frame. “Whoa!” he exclaimed in
mock shock. “Lolita,” said Shad, “I’d download your complete criminal
record, but this sorry shadow of a computer only has fifteen hundred
megagigs of memory.”
I glanced at the list. Sealed juvenile previous weighing a third the
megabyte weight of her adult convictions. She was a jewel thief primarily,
some confidence work, not terribly competent at either. She couldn’t have
done much worse if she’d spent her mornings booking cells for her
evenings through the Convict Accommodation Association. Did her first
stint in H.M Prison and Remand Centre Exeter at the age of nineteen. Back
in at twenty-two. Back again at twenty-five. According to the record I was
reading she was nearing sixty and more than half of that time had been
spent as a guest of His Majesty’s government. According to her library
record in the nick, she’d read every piece of children’s fiction in the place.
Psych evaluation: Terrific liar; couldn’t change a battery; at risk for
becoming institutionalized, which meant she’s been inside so long she’d do
almost anything to stay behind walls.
“Yes.”
“Sure.”
Shad whistled a bar from the Woody Woodpecker song. True. If she
had been Pinocchio instead of Rita Hayworth she would have had a
California redwood hanging from between her eyes by now.
“Yes,” I said. “I know it. It’s owned by Frankie Statten, isn’t it?”
“So?”
“Doesn’t say a whole lot for the rehab program up there,” observed
Shad. “The parakeet robbie gimmick, Lolita: What made you think of it?” he
asked her.
The parrot looked up at me. “Well, Sherlock, I guess she’s got nothin’
to hide.”
I sat down on a stool and looked again at Lolita’s file. The picture of
Lolita Doll—taken when her nat was about thirty—although of typical
constabulary quality, was not unpleasant. Her photo gave the impression of
a lonely, frightened girl trying to look tough and into her third decade of
refusing to stand up straight. Her most recent photo showed her sadder,
grayer, and a bit more stooped. “Swap your body for the AI chip and
imprinting, did you?” I asked, not much interested in the answer, knowing it
was going to be a lie.
Rita Hayworth glanced at the window, then looked away. She nodded.
“Just another meat suit, wasn’t it. Didn’t like the way I looked anyway. With
what I would’ve made off the Wallingford job—I could’ve become ... I
could’ve become ... why, just anybody, couldn’t I.” Rita shrugged and
looked down.
“What’re you, copper? Bleedin’ Mother Mary?” The sneer Rita had on
her face was not attractive at all and was quite contradicted by the tears
welling in her CGI’s eyes.
“Listen up, you sorry scrap of plastic and magnetic impulses,” snarled
Shad into the workstation’s camera pickup, “You are talking to Detective
Inspector Harrington Jaggers of Interpol’s Artificial Beings Crimes
Division’s Devon Office, late of the London Metropolitan Police, the cop
who’s put away enough blood-and-guts stone killers to fill the recruiting
needs of every tattooed and drugged up prison gang in the United
Kingdom, Wales, and the Maldives until the next millennium! So unless you
want your highly illegal AI chip to accidentally find itself flushed down the
Petting Place’s toilet, me girl, you’d best straighten up and answer up, ‘less
you want to find yourself up that bleedin’ pile of sand and rock, haulin’ a
rucksack full of ruddy flippin’ shot puts!”
He had begun as Jack Webb in The D.I., but at the end had slipped
rather badly into Harry Andrews in The Hill.
Rita was looking rather wide-eyed at the parrot. After a moment her
gaze shifted to me. “Sorry, Inspector. Didn’t mean anything.”
Rita was trying, struggling for words, her eyes welling with electronic
tears. “I don’t know. I want to be...” She looked directly at me. “I want to be
safe.” She nodded to herself. “I’ll tell you, inspector. Safe. Taken care of.”
She glanced away for a moment, as though embarrassed. “Had that inside,
kind of. You know?” She looked back at me. “Wasn’t happy, though. I do so
want to be happy.”
“No.”
“Don’t mix me up with the picture on the screen, Inspector. I’m near
sixty. Love’s something you read about in the romance graphs. Money,
now.” She smiled wickedly. “They tells me money can’t buy me love, but it
do make the search a heap more comfortable.”
“Spare us the brass, sister. What happened this time?” asked Shad.
She glanced at the parrot and shrugged. “Me own fault. Flying around
the place, scoping out the security systems, I ran flat into something. Never
saw it. Jammed me up. Froze me solid. Everything but me eyes and ears.
Butler found me next morning, put me on a shelf. Auntie shakes her head.
Auntie’s brother, Barney Bananas, takes me up to his room and sticks me
on top a nine year old slice o’ wedding cake he was saving for his future
missus, which give me sticky feet and a good look at his telly. ‘Course he
only played this one vid he liked, over and over and over, day in and
bleedin’ night out for a year three months a week and four days until Barney
Wallingford died right in the middle of Lawrence Harvey gettin’ kissed by
his mum for the last time as it turned out. Then they packed up Barmey
Barney’s belongings, including me, and stuck us all in the attic for another
three years. The last I saw the light ‘til Maddie checked me out to bring me
here.”
“The dir—”
“John Frankenheimer.”
“Pro—”
“Don’t you want to know who did Janet Leigh’s hair styles?” Rita
Hayworth asked the parrot. She pulled back the left corner of her mouth into
a knowing smile. “Or do you already know?”
“I rest my case.”
While Shad went on the net to check out her answer, he asked Lolita,
“Why didn’t your partner come and get you out?”
Rita arched her lovely brows. “Partners look out for each other. If I
had a partner you think I would’ve gotten into such a fix?” She looked down.
“Four years,” she said. “Four years.”
“What did you do all that time to keep from going crazy?” asked
Shad.
Rita stared wide eyed at Shad. “Why, birdie, I passed the time by
playing a little solitaire.”
“I’d rather go back and watch the original another fifty-five hundred
times.” Her CGI looked at me. “What are you going to do with me,
Inspector?”
“To be perfectly honest, Lolita, I don’t know. Hence, I’m going to pass
the buck. I have a friend in London and this parrot, Dr. Watson here, is
going to send your engrams and particulars to my friend for a second
opinion.” Shad looked at me all wide eyed and quizzical. “Dr. Bing
Ehrenberg. You’ll find his address in my personal folder. Attach a copy of
Lolita’s previous along with a brief description of the current situation, what
she’s been through, and our assessment of her account, and send the lot
to Dr. Ehrenberg. Include her complete prison record, as well.” I looked
one last time at Rita. “While he’s doing that, I’ll see if I can repair old Ringo
and get the bird singing again. Once I hear from the doctor, I’ll make my
decision.” I put her on pause.
“Like sands through the hour glass,” began Shad, “so are the days of
our lives—”
Since our credit numbers and equipment were out there somewhere
awaiting delivery along with our puppies and kittens, we took Madeleine
Wallingford’s address ostensibly for billing purposes and agreed to put an
advert in the window for an outing to the medieval underground tunnels of
Exeter being organized by the Lympstone Society and another for Maddie’s
own group, the Order of St. Trinians, ta ta, Abyssinia, and all that twaddle.
The door closed.
“Sorry?”
He did and something was. While Shad and I had been in Lympstone
disposing of Lolita and the kaput parakeet matter, ABCD units in
Manchester and London, in conjunction with local police authorities, had
successfully detained all the improper puppy imprinting principals as well
as their primary patrons. The bogus bio barons had been bagged. While
muttering, Shad flew to the shop’s garage and copied back into his Nigel
Bruce, I bent to the task of repacking all those bloomin’ boxes of bird seed,
tins of dog food, and little packets of catnip. Mama Bimbo’s Cat House was
going out of business, mon.
****
“Of course.”
“Honor among thieves. Humph! Stranding her like that,” said Watson
in disgust. “What do you suppose it was like, Holmes, after watching that
vid a few thousand times with Barmy Barney then shut up in a little box in
the dark for another three years? Nothing to move but your eyeballs?
Nothing to think about but The Manchurian Candidate.” He shuddered
convincingly. “Had to make two weeks of solitary confinement seem a mere
stroll in the park.”
“It must have been strikingly like an experience I had years ago in
London shortly after I died, Watson.” I wondered slightly at my use of the
“Watson” name. Came devilishly easy to the tongue for someone who
swore the name would never pass his lips.
“In a cast were you, Holmes?” asked Watson. “Held in stasis a long
time, old trout? Medically induced coma?”
“Not at all, old fellow. Valerie took me to see a showing of the Bette
Davis-Lillian Gish classic, The Whales of August.” For once Shad didn’t
immediately come back with the release date. He simply shuddered.
“I should say so. They had the bloody thing at the Exeter Picture
House. Special treat. I’d never seen it before. The Whales of August.
Ought to require theaters to post well-being warnings before showing the
blithering health hazard.”
Nigel chuckled a Watson chuckle. “You know, Nadine quite likes that
movie, Holmes. What do you make of that?”
I thought for a moment. “Not exactly. You see, Val wasn’t a cat when
we saw it.”
“But she became a cat, Holmes. Everything was there but the fur and
whiskers, you see?”
“Perhaps. Yes, I’ll grant you that, Watson. Well done.” I glanced over
at Shad and he was doing a very good self-satisfied Watson chuckle having
gotten-one-up on Sherlock Holmes. Detective Superintendent Matheson’s
face came into my thoughts for some reason. “Two things before we get
back to division, old fellow.”
“One, when we get in the building, you must stop calling me Holmes.
Two, I see that deerstalker cap you have in your pocket.”
“Oh?”
There was only one phrase that seemed to fit. “Elementary, my dear
Shad. Elementary.”
****
Shad and I, on the other hand, went out on a deranged squirrel call in
front of Debenhams and there witnessed a three vehicle pile-up as two
ground electrics slammed into a lorry, whose driver stopped in the middle
of his lane of traffic because he was stunned at seeing the real Sherlock
Holmes and Dr. Watson. Chief Constable Raymond Crowe, who had yet to
be found out for crimes of his own, buzzed D. Supt. Matheson about getting
Shad back into his feathers. At the very least, Matheson was to keep us off
the streets. The squirrel withdrew the complaint against Debenhams, but
insisted upon autographs from Shad and myself. He returned our early
efforts pointedly remarking that no one had ever heard of Harrington
Jaggers and Guy Shad. After we sent the furry fellow off with the Holmes
and Watson inscriptions upon which he insisted, Watson looked at me and
said, “Why are you looking so glum? So it wasn’t for your own name. Cheer
up. It was your first autograph request.”
“That is true.”
“Well, cheer up, Watson,” I said. “At least the squirrel didn’t demand
you quack out ‘aflak’ and fall off a cliff. Every cloud has a silver lining.”
“You ever try flying through a cloud that had a silver lining?”
****
Early one sunny afternoon, a call came into ABCD from Powderham
Castle, the home of the Earl of Devon. The castle was located almost
directly across the River Exe from Lympstone, between the Village of
Powderham and the larger village of Kenton. The call had been placed by
the head of security at the castle, a former assistant chief constable of the
West Midlands Constabulary named Ian Collier whom I had known many
years ago from a case I had worked when I had been with Metro. A quite
capable fellow, Collier. I had lost touch with him by the unfortunate
expedient of getting killed. I fully expected him to be chief constable by
now. Silly me. Instead he was Mr. Collier and running a private security
force at a castle that doubled as a mini theme park and convention center
with all kinds of events from nature walks and children’s theater to weddings
and rock concerts. Collier had called me directly.
Earlier in the day a large wedding had been held at Powderham in the
castle’s ornate music room. The reception luncheon, curiously enough, was
held in the selfsame music room, while the music, with its concomitant
dancing was taking place in the castle’s huge dining room. Conversing,
apologizing, promising, drinking, changing, pilfering jewelry, and recovering
from various excesses were spread among the other rooms that had been
made available to the wedding party.
The father of the groom, a Mr. Edsel Meyer, first reported one of the
guests missing her jewelry, a rather expensive triple strand of matched
natural pearls. Later, other guests reported missing jewelry until even the
bride, the former June Grimpion and grandniece of Lord Devon, reported
missing an emerald-cut diamond bracelet. The total promised to be a
respectable haul. Ian Collier stated quite bluntly that he wanted that which
could be done in an unofficial capacity to be carried out in exactly that
manner.
“Lord Devon specifically asked for us?” I could see the stars glittering
in the superintendent’s eyes.
“I took the call myself,” which was not a lie. “In addition, sir, it would
be an opportunity to get Dr. Watson and myself away from the tower for the
afternoon, what with the inspection of the Exeter Station by the chief
constable rumored to be occurring at almost any moment—”
“Don’t you two play at that Holmes and Watson nonsense out at
Powderham, Jaggers? Shad? You hear me? Shad? Shad?” Matheson
cautioned as his door closed behind us.
As the doors to the elevator hardened and the car ascended, Watson
said, “What was that fellow blathering on about, Holmes—all that playing at
Powderham rubbish?”
****
“Cameras?” I asked.
“Jaggers, unless the thief burrowed out underground, the stuff’s still
on the grounds.”
“What do you think? I should make clear, Jaggers, that the castle is
not liable for any stolen property. That’s not his lordship’s concern. It’s
just that his lordship is related to the bride’s family and is a guest at both
wedding and reception, as well.”
“Hence he would prefer not having the screws slamming his fellow
guests up against his ornate walls, spreading them out, and patting them
down.”
“You are so sensitive, my friend. I knew calling you was the right
thing to do.”
“You are correct, Watson. The first Timmy Tortoise dates back to
1854 and died in the early twenty-first century. The current one is an
amdroid bio taken from the original Timmy’s DNA imprinted by—her name
escapes me—an actress.”
“Went down there with Nadine, Holmes, and caught the woman’s act
just before we were blown up that time out at Hangingstone. Quite
depressing.”
“I suspect the actor imprinted onto the Timmy bio restricts her
tortoise fare to lettuce, Watson. Perhaps the odd tomato slice. I hear she
does impressions. Is that true?”
“The very same. Not a whole lot of really creepy maiden aunt parts
available these days. I suppose she figures the shell game is at least show
business. Reminds me of that old joke about the fellow in the circus
scrubbing the elephant’s bum.” He coughed a Watson cough. “Sorry,
Holmes. This wretched acting business: Millions grasping hungrily for a
scant dozen brass rings. Had one of those rings once myself.” Silence as
he thought for a moment on his famous past, then he shook his head and
waved a hand as if dismissing it from his attention. “Sorry. Sorry, Holmes.
Can’t imagine what came over me. Got a head full of fuzz lately.
Apologies.”
“Think nothing of it, old fellow.” I frowned at him. How much was fuzz
and how much was Shad doing his Nigel Bruce’s Watson?
“Why, I’m astounded, old fellow. Did your Nigel Bruce Watson getup
come with a bumbled brain program?”
“Now, no need for hurt feelings. Late in the twentieth century what
famous motion picture was partly filmed at Powderham? Remember?”
“A vid?”
“Ed—”
For every detail sorted, a new one needing a sort popped up. I rang a
number. Bing Ehrenberg was in and available. I sent him what I had along
with my best guesses regarding who and what to do. He agreed with me,
which settled a couple of details. He asked a few questions. I answered
them. Bing was happy to hear I was enjoying my work again. I told him I had
been blown up and was working for John Dillinger. He asked about Val. I
told him she was now a cat. Asked about my job. Told him I was now
Sherlock Holmes. Asked about my new partner. I told Bing my partner used
to be a duck and would be again. He wanted to know how I felt about that
and I told him we got along rather well—even better after he was killed and
came back as Dr. Watson. Asked me if I thought Norfolk would take the
MCCA Knockout Trophy and I told him that would happen when Inland
Revenue ran out of taxpayers. He told me I seemed to be doing much
better. Patience of a saint, Dr. Ehrenberg.
Watson sat back, looked at me, and said, “The butler did it.”
“Great heavens, man! It’s right there under your nose. Look! The
bounder’s name is Moriarty! James Moriarty!”
****
The air corridor followed the Exeter Canal as it hugged the west bank
of the Exe as far south as Turf where the canal ended. The river made a
gentle bend to the east, and the corridor continued south over the farmland
canals and greenery near the hamlet of Exwell Barton. Directly before us,
rising from the greensward like some sort of medieval stone rocket gantry
at the top of a gentle hill was Powderham Castle estate’s triple-towered
stone Belvedere. Vacationers waved from the crenellated battlements and
Watson waved back. Beyond and below the towers, set among the trees in
a deer park by a small lake, was the castle. Looking beyond the castle site
was the wide avenue of the river, then Exmouth just below the curve of the
ocean’s blue horizon. White sprinkles of gulls flitted among the blues,
greens, reds, and yellows of the sails and pennants flying on the sailboats
filling the Exe. Watson pointed toward the boats. “Looks more fun than
selling kitty litter, eh Holmes?”
Watson settled deeply into his couch and concentrated on the Sky
Rover’s instruments. “River looks very deep there, Holmes. Probably quite
cold, too.”
****
The Courtenays were not only respected in the west country but well
liked. I doubt if there had been anyone living within a hundred kilometers of
Powderham who hadn’t, at least once in their lifetimes, visited the castle.
Val and I had been there several times on tours and at events: once on a
tour of the castle, once on a tour of the gardens, once on a nature walk,
once as guests at a wedding, twice we went to catch the fireworks on Guy
Fawkes Day. Even Shad and Nadine had been there, as Watson had
narrated. A big jewelry heist among the guests at a Powderham paid
occasion wouldn’t ruin the Courtenays and probably wouldn’t break any of
the guests so robbed. It was not, however, the sort of thing needed right
then by Ian Collier and his family. In any event, it was very rude.
“Not at all, my boy,” I said to the fellow in the candy-striped tie. “The
name of the wedding party, Grimpion-Meyer, struck us funny because of
our resemblance to some fictional detectives in some very old vids:
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.” I took the deerstalker cap from Shad’s
head and placed it upon my own.
“One of their cases, The Hound of the Baskervilles. Have you heard
of it?”
The lad stared at us for a moment, then smiled on one side of his
mouth, then the other, then he said, “Grimpion-Meyer,” he laughed, and
unpleasantness was averted. “One thing, though,” the lad said to me as
Shad turned and began walking toward the castle’s north gate entrance.
“Yes?”
“Can you see Sherlock Holmes with a shotgun sneaking through the
woods saying, ‘Shhhh. I’m hunting a wabbit.’”
“I cannot.”
“Good lad.” I patted his back. “Sir, the rakish deerstalker is the only
possible ear-flapped traveling cap sufficiently fashionable for Sherlock
Holmes. Good day to you.”
****
By the time I managed to catch up with him, Shad was standing at the
foot of a dark staircase covered with a blue runner, blue carpeting on the
immediate landing, and more blue runner as the stairs continued up and to
the right. On the back of the landing into the blue plaster of the wall was a
hidden door to a set of servant’s stairs. It strained memory but it appeared
to be where the butler’s father in Remains of the Day first showed that his
squirrels were getting the better of him, as a duck I had once known might
have put it.
Nigel Bruce, thoughtfully cocking his head to one side and tugging at
his bit of a mustache, could have been right out of any of the
Rathbone-Bruce series of vids. He glanced at me. “Oh,” he said bluntly.
“There you are, Holmes. Been looking all over for you. Where the deuce’ve
you been?” He looked back at the stairs. “Look at this staircase. Not much
of Remains was filmed here, you know. Never cared much for the
character of Lord Darlington. Not a great role for Edward Fox, an actor I
much admire, as you know.”
“Yes.”
“Much underrated in his time, Edward Fox. What a Nelson he
would’ve made. Eh, Holmes?”
“A role for which any self-respecting British actor would gladly give his
right arm, Watson.”
“Was there anyone who saw that performance, Holmes, who at the
conclusion wasn’t rooting for the Jackal to shoot Charles de Gaulle?”
“Very true, Watson, but that may have been for other reasons
besides Fox’s performance.”
“As you may recall, Day of the Jackal was inspired by an actual plot
to assassinate de Gaulle. It was said most Western leaders had his face on
their dart boards.”
“I see. Well then, how about Edward Fox’s role as Leftenant Francis
Farewell, the adventurer who came to South Africa to hoodwink a savage
ruler and stayed to fall beneath the spell of the great Shaka, king of the
Zulus?”
Shad looked up the stairs, his eyes bugged, his cheeks bulged, and
he struggled to his feet, spluttering apologies. Lord Devon placed his
well-manicured hands together and clapped genteelly. “Well done, sir.
Shaka Zulu. Well done.” He nodded his gray mane at me. “Indeed, I am
horribly late for the reception and I see the chief constable has sent
England’s most dynamic duo to track me down, wot? Holmes and Watson,
wot? Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce?”
The master of the house laughed, crinkled his eyes, and pointed
down an ancestor-imaged hallway generally toward the south. “All of the
way down there, doctor, last door on the right. Oh.”
We both paused, frozen in mid getaway, giving Lord Devon our full
attention. It was that kind of ‘oh.’ “Yes, milord?” I said.
“Do you know if there has been any progress made concerning this
dreadful jewelry matter?”
Lord Devon looked into a glass and darkly. “Away at school you tell all
your chums the bloody thing was filmed at Powderham. They don’t care the
ruddy film’s boring. It’s Hollywood. Movies! With Hannibal the cannibal.
You sit before the tellymax screen all puffed up, the ruddy thing begins.
There it goes, sir, with that bloody ride up a hilly lane you never saw before
and you pull up to a townhouse with a Georgian roofline decorated with
bloody old urns. ‘Where the hell is that?’ shouts out Jimmy Brown. ‘That’s
not Powderham,’ says Cyril Danforth. ‘Where’s that, Charlie?’ yells out
Tommy Welles. “Where are the battlements?”
His lordship descended the remains of the stairs, clasped his hands
behind his back, shook his head, and made his way toward the wedding
party, still shaking his head. “Scarred me for life,” he muttered as he turned
a corner. “Bloody movies.” Shad and I exited on tiptoe in the opposite
direction.
“Save? Save?”
“Really, Holmes!”
“You know what they call a firefighter who does a superb job of
extinguishing fires he himself has ignited?”
“What?”
****
“Pleased to meet you, sir,” said Watson, extending his hand. They
shook. Collier appeared to be waiting for an explanation I really had neither
the time nor the heart to provide. Hence, I said, “Shad and I are traveling
incognito.”
I smiled. “She is not blind, and that dog is a Labradoodle bio with a
human imprint. As soon as possible after grabbing them—”
“With prejudice. Once you have them, separate them. Make certain
you get both woman and dog and that they cannot communicate. I doubt
that they’ll be rigged with wireless, but be prepared for it just in case they
are.”
“Very well.”
Collier leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs. “There’s a place
just beyond the rose garden where you can have that meeting,” he said. “At
the east edge of the garden where it drops down to the dressage lawn
there’s a wall. It would conceal your cruiser.”
“Excellent.”
“Am I permitted to know what’s going on?” he asked.
“I’m sorry, old fellow. It’s like rescuing the troops from Dunkirk. If it
had to be written up in triplicate and approved in advance, no one ever
would have had the courage to take the responsibility.”
“Now that you mention it, the phrase ‘the brave Six Hundred’ does
come to mind rather easily right now.” Ian Collier shifted his gaze back to
me. “I’m not going to find out you two have escaped from some asylum am
I?”
“No. I don’t believe you will ever find out.” I touched my fingertips
together and looked over them, my eyebrows arched, my eyes widened,
but not crossed.
The change of subject caught him off stride. Once his double take
was done, he leaned back in his chair. “When I was forced to retire?” he
asked, his face reddening.
As gentle breezes touched the treetops, the warm spring air was
filled with the heady scent of roses. A marquee for children’s
entertainments had already been erected at the edge of the lawn below the
rose garden. Inside the marquee were a few chairs, Betsy Blythe, Ian
Collier, Clarice Penne as Timmy the Tortoise, Shad as Bruce as Watson,
and myself somewhat in charge. The ABCD cruiser was parked out of sight
of the castle next to the rose garden wall stairs. Collier and Watson stood
guard by the stairs while I sat on the chair facing Betsy Blythe to my right
and the tortoise to my left. Miss Penne, of course, as a thorn-thighed
tortoise, had her head stuck out of a shell about the size of a smallish
elongated dinner plate with warmer. Miss Blythe was somewhat more
attractive being a shapely human female bio wearing a pale blue cocktail
dress with white half-heels. She was in her mid twenties, brown hair with
reddish highlights, a relaxed cupid’s bow mouth, a bit of an upturned nose,
and lovely hazel eyes once I removed her heavy sunglasses.
“I’m sorry, sir. I don’t know who you are. I’m blind, you see.”
“It’s Lolita Doll, and you are no more sightless than am I. We are
pressed for time, my dear. Therefore, may we dispense with the denials,
explanations, excuses, and so on?”
“My dog—”
She stood up and glared down at me. “Lolita Doll rats out nobody,
copper!”
I held up a hand. “Please. Calm yourself. You all but sent engraved
invitations. Now, take your seat.”
She slowly sat down on her chair, still glaring at me, then looking
down ashamed. “You helped me a lot, Inspector Jaggers. That’s the truth.
You and the parrot. Don’t know what I would’ve done if I hadn’t fallen into
your hands. That Dr. Ehrenberg helped me, too. But how’d you know I had
a partner in that Wallingford job? And how’d you know to come here to
catch us?”
“At times I astound even myself. What were you trying to do, Lolita?”
She looked up at me, her eyes filled with tears. “See, all the ladies
had these little changing cubicles set up in the room off the First Library
where they could change before the reception and dance. Can’t thunder
rock wearin’ all that ice. Mr. Collier there had folks they could leave
valuables with, but most guests didn’t bother. Frank was right about that. But
a signal’s supposed to go off when we returns to the shop. That’s when we
was all supposed to get nicked. I suppose this is all right for what it is, but
it’s only going to be attempted, isn’t it? I wanted the whole book.”
“I thought you wanted some place safe, Lolita, to be taken care of, to
be happy and loved. You’re not going to get that locked up in the nick.”
She looked at the tortoise and back at me. “Oh, sure. I mean I seen
her here in the garden maybe a hundred times tellin’ stories to the children,
the tykes pettin’ her shell and all. Every chance I get I come down here. I
told Dr. Ehrenberg about it. So beautiful here.”
“How would you like to tell stories to children, Lolita? You’re good with
lies and know the very best stories. How would you like Clarice’s job?”
“Now you hold on just a minute there, Sherlock,” said the tortoise.
“This is my gig and for as long as I want it. I got a contract.”
The tortoise was dead silent, but I could almost see the smoke
coming off the top of its wrinkled head. Finally the tortoise glanced back at
me. “Who the hell are you, mate?”
The tortoise moved its head until it was once again looking at Lolita.
Clarice said, “Would you consider it, girl, even for a serious second?”
“Girl, you don’t even know what my body in stasis looks like.”
“I don’t care,” said Lolita. “I don’t want that body. I want the one you’re
in now.”
“I have your natural all taken care of,” I said to Clarice. “Are we
agreed, then? Lolita?”
“Safe, taken care of, happy, and loved. You remembered everything,
Inspector. Is there nothing you can’t do?”
I took Clarice and Lolita over to the cruiser, ran up the mechs, moved
a few things out of the way, moved in one woman bio and one tortoise bio,
swapped their imprints, and moved out one woman bio and one tortoise
bio. Once that was accomplished the two of them went to a far corner
below the rose garden wall to talk over some tortoise-girl, girl-tortoise stuff.
As they were thus engaged, I sent the cruiser to the next location, the
outside entrance to our improvised dungeon, and said to my faithful
medical companion, “Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot!”
****
It was not a bad dungeon for our purposes. The space was below
ground level, sufficiently dank, the walls of ancient dressed stone, the
atmosphere musty. The room’s past as a storage place for meats was
evidenced by the number of rusty meat hooks protruding from two of the
four walls. There were no grinning skeletons hanging from irons, but the
castle’s spider population had done a grand job of decorating the craggy
beams above with filthy old webs. The lights were electric instead of smoky
old torches, but the lights were grimy and adequately dim.
In the center of the room was a large wooden butcher’s block table.
Its dark uneven surface had seen much use over the centuries. The dips
and stains testified to millions of cuts and oceans of blood. I stood at one
corner of the table, Ian stood across from me. At the other two corners
were two of Ian’s men, Peter Blake and Henry Tompkins. They were both
retired constables who did professional wrestling on the local circuit. With
the proper makeup they had also appeared in several locally produced
horror vids. They were wearing the proper makeup.
In the center of the table sat about the sweetest, most good-natured,
lovable dog I had ever seen. He was about seven stone, his fur light brown,
curly, and uncut, giving him both a ragged and fluffy appearance. Delightful
face, with a few of those curls hanging before his eyes. The dog’s name,
according to his license tag, was “Doodles.” His brace, peculiar to
seeing-eye dogs, had been removed and was on the floor in the corner
behind Ian. To all appearances he was a real dog, which meant his bio
receiver was being shielded by a Bio Shack special. Doodles, poor fellow,
appeared just a bit nervous.
“Your allergic sensitivities are safe with this pooch, Mr. Blake. Now, as
I remarked, they are easily trained and well behaved, which is why this
animal’s behavior quite puzzles me. There is only one reason I can think of
why such a valuable animal should eat all that jewelry that was left in the
changing room.”
“And Dr. Watson has examined all of the other pets as possible
hiding places, hasn’t he?”
Ian, Blake, and Tompkins hung their heads. “Aye,” said Tompkins.
“He did that.” I rather hoped they weren’t overdoing it. I glanced down at the
butcher block and there was just the right amount of tomato juice smeared
about. The Labradoodle was looking down at the butcher block, as well. His
tongue was out and he was panting.
“There you are, Mr. Tompkins,” I said. “‘When you have eliminated
the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’“
I looked into the dog’s wide-eyed gaze and said, “Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.”
A rattle followed by a low muttered curse came from the shadows beyond
the arched doorway. From beyond it Watson emerged wearing the
butchers apron stained from the waist down with tomato juice. He wasn’t
wearing his tweed jacket and the sleeves of his white shirt were rolled
above his elbows. His hands were stained slightly with red, but the butcher
knife in his right hand was coated with the stuff.
“We were pressed for time, old fellow. Sorry to put you through that.”
He looked over the tops of his glasses at the assembly. “The owners
of those cats are going to be quite distressed and it’s no fault of mine. I
objected to all those procedures from the start. I want that on the record.”
He snorted contemptuously at the butcher knife in his hand, which he began
waving about. “Not even a proper scalpel. This thing’s dull as an old rake.
Do a better job with a chain saw.”
Watson’s eyebrows went up. “At least this one is big enough to hold
the jewelry, Holmes.” He passed his thumb slowly over the knife’s edge.
“Strange looking beast, there. What kind of breed is that?”
I held out a hand to Peter Blake. “You may have the honor, Mr. Blake.”
“Labradoodle, you say? Well, there, stretch him out on the block boys
and let’s see if we can’t separate his Labra from his doodles.”
“All right! All right! Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!” yelled the dog. “All
bloody right!”
We watched as the dog sat back on its hind legs, pulled its forelegs
to its sides, and a line appeared in the dog’s fine belly hair. The line parted
starting at the top, and essentially unsealed spilling all of the missing
jewelry into Peter Blake’s quick hands. Watson moved to my side.
“So it seems to me the best thing is to return the jewelry to its rightful
owners, no theft, no scandal, no harm done.”
“That sounds cool.” The dog held up its right paw, extended a toe and
wagged it back and forth. “But, call me Mr. Suspicious, I see a big fat
fishhook with my name on it.”
“Yes.”
“Why, I’m so glad you asked that question, Mr. Statten. We keep the
jewelry, return it to its owners, and return you to your natural body in Exeter
no harm done—”
“—And?”
“The bios.”
“It’s only because of her you’re getting this deal, Frank,” I said.
“We’ve detained her and she will be spending the rest of her life behind
walls.” I pointed at the velvet-lined interior of his belly cavity. “We knew it
was you all along because your gut was the last place there was to look.
What about the deal?”
“Once we get you back to Queen Street and Songbirds. Is that where
you keep your natural?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you need to be counseled on how much time you could draw
doing things your way?”
“There has to be a catch.” The dog looked down and shook his head.
“Why do you say that, Watson? I would call this a most satisfactory
conclusion to this matter.”
“Here you have a dog and you never got to say anything about the
curious incident of the dog in the nighttime.”
“Wasn’t what—I don’t quite see what you are driving at, Watson. I
thought the curious incident was that the dog wasn’t barking.”
“Well, this dog wasn’t barking. Didn’t you find that curious?”
“Really.”
“Thank you.” I turned to Watson and smiled. “Well done, old fellow.
Well done. So, while you clean up and Mr. Blake and Mr. Tompkins
discreetly return the jewelry to their respective owners, Mr. Collier, Mr.
Statten, and I shall repair to the cruiser and sort out a few final details.” I
held out my hand toward the stairs. “Gentlemen.”
As I followed Collier and the dog up the dungeon stairs, I heard the
Labradoodle ask him confidentially, “This Holmes and Watson thing those
two got going. An act, right? An act?”
****
The cruiser rose from Powderham Castle in an arc that took us over
the River Exe, giving us a good view of Lympstone’s Bay Tower red in the
afternoon sun. I could see Mama Bimbo’s Cat House on The Strand being
fitted out for some other kind of shop. A flight of gulls crossed below us
and made wing for chips or fingerlings, whichever were more plentiful as
the tide changed. Watson put us on autopilot and settled back in his couch.
“I am going to take this chip to his stasis bed at Songbirds, update his
natural, and leave, inquiry closed.”
“Memories of every crime and crooked deal Statten ever pulled,
everything he has in the works right now, is in his memory recall bank. I
cannot believe you won’t at least make a copy of that chip for the
constabulary.”
“Small price to pay for ending a one-man crime wave and doing a
good cop a favor, don’t you think? It should make absolute excrement of
Frankie’s criminal life and reputation, which will settle his account with
Loretta nicely.”
“I’m surprised at you, Watson,” I said. “Surely you recall our visit to
that fair seaside cultural center you insisted on pronouncing Limp-stone.”
“Do you also remember the woman who constituted one hundred
percent of the clientele of Mama Bimbo’s Cat House?”
He lifted the lid from the box, placed it aside, opened the tissue
paper, and took the gray homburg from it. “Why ... why this is quite
thoughtful, Holmes.” He placed it on his head with both hands and faced
me. “How do I look?”
“Why not?”
His face grew long and troubled. “Now, this makes me feel terrible.”
“Well, I’ve noticed, Holmes, that you seem to be enjoying our Holmes
and Watson thing quite a bit more than I have.”
“I’d noticed it myself. Now that I reflect upon it, I haven’t felt this
perceptive in decades. I feel as though I could untie the Gordian Knot
one-handed, blindfolded, and play multiple games of championship chess
with my toes at the same time.”
“Feeling rather sharp, eh, Holmes?”
“What’s that?”
“I’m afraid I don’t see. What are you talking about, Watson? What
cost-cutting measure?”
“Oh. Well, usually both suits are rented at the same time: Holmes and
Watson. You see? Symbiotic relationship.”
“They had to have the Nigel Bruce as Watson suits made, you see.
For the Basil Rathbone as Holmes suits, though, they simply used the
same model fallen officer replacement suit that you have yourself.”
“Ever since I went wireless I must get a half dozen of those things a
day. I never read them—who has the time? What—well, what does it do?”
Watson yawned, tipped the homburg over his eyes, and slid down in
his seat. “Only some mannerisms, vocabulary choices, thought pattern
adjustments. According to the brochure it should sharpen up your thinking a
bit. Seems to have done just that. Gordian Knot and all. We can uninstall it, I
suppose.”
****
The Holmes and Watson duo are only for entertainment, guys! Silly
us! So if you run into real emergency situations while occupying these bios,
programming automatically calls the chaps who are the real professionals.
For anything less than emergencies, programming restricts your problem
solving strategies to those not involving arrests or otherwise burdening the
police. Have fun! And please solve crime responsibly.
****
“Terribly sorry, Watson. Bum berry pie sounds even less appetizing
than bumble brain pie.”
“Since we are all agreed that the jewelry was misplaced and not
stolen, there was no crime. Hence, no need to produce anything back at the
office.”
I caught the sound of the old fellow gently snoring, took over the
cruiser’s controls, and entered the correct heading, wondering if the patch I
had automatically accepted into my neural system included the ability to
play the violin and an addiction to cocaine. Then I remembered my Holmes
was a Basil Rathbone Hollywood Holmes whose strongest addiction was to
whatever tobacco was stuffed into that huge meerschaum pipe of his. I
needn’t worry about smoking. Neither my lungs, my wife, nor the clean air
regulations at Heavitree Tower could tolerate any of that nonsense.
****